handmade: a happy kind of making

One of the things I LOVE about making custom clothes for people, is that, while I'm sewing, I have some ideas about the person I'm sewing for. I have a sense of their likes and dislikes, their interests, their size, and where they live. So while I'm sewing up their skirt/s and/or bolero/s or whatever, I'm thinking about and imagining what they might be like. It's a connection. And while I have someone in mind - even if my imaginings are completely off-track - I'm feeling great about what I'm sewing, thinking about it going to its new home and being worn and hopefully loved by the recipient. Sometimes, when I'm lucky, people send me photos of themselves at weddings and on holidays, wearing the clothes I made. Sometimes I see my clothes on people in the street. Beautiful!

The good thing about this sale is that I've been CRAZY BUSY 'meeting' new people who have asked me to sew for them. I have really enjoyed this. But at the same time, I've also felt sad because, unfortunately, the vast majority of clothing that is bought, worn and then thrown away when it's no longer 'in' is made without any connection between the maker and wearer. I reckon this is a loss for both ends of the chain, though most obviously for the poor, usually exploited manufacturers who are responsible for making most of the clothes worn by us privileged whiteys. I know, I know, some things are hard to make - like undies! And even if you find some at the op-shop you sometimes might not actually want to wear them. But for most things, a more earth and people friendly option is usually available. Obviously, the op-shop should be your first port of call. Cheap and non-exploitative. What's not to like? But for new stuff, what to do? Well, you could support handmade-in-Australia type situations, like Pearl & Elspeth.

Check out Etsy! So much fun, interesting, imaginative stuff going on. And sure, it's more expensive than Target, but hey, at least the work that's gone into your clothing is being properly appreciated and valued. Surely this is worth something?

For me to make a skirt for fifty bucks is alright. I feel good about that amount of money. I'm not, by any means maintaining some kind of wild profit margin. But I'm lucky, because I love what I do. I love working with interesting fabrics, I love making people interesting clothing that's one-of-a-kind, and I love the connection I feel with the items I sew. When I imagine those people working in sweatshops, churning out probably hundreds of the same item every day, I feel, in my heart, the luxury of my position: I will never have to do that. Why should anyone?

So, to those of you who support, directly, the makers of your clothes - you rock. Like Meg, of Nana Glen, for example. She is the lucky recipient of the much-coveted native bird skirt (seriously Meg - people love it), a yellow wrap n' go, and a couple of boleros.

I had fun making this stuff for her, used up some reclaimed linen, and the money I made will go towards building a passive-solar strawbale home for my family to live in. If that's not a win-win situation, I don't know what is.

The trouble with a loose weave...

is that no matter how small the stitches are, it will, when you wear it, probably pull through and start to fall apart. Not what you want from a totally beautiful skirt with a bird on it.

A few months ago the lovely Louisa asked me to make her a skirt from a teatowel she had found, which was nothing short of stunning, and some freakishly complementary fabric that she had found somewhere else. I sewed up the skirt, using my usual tea-towel-smack-bang-in-the-front-of-the-a-line skirt pattern mostly because it seemed just too beautiful to cut up. I was slightly apprehensive about the loose nature of the weave on the tea-towel, so selected a short stitch length, overlocked, and then folded over the seams and sewed them down. This sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't.

As you can see, not so successful this time.

Back to the drawing board, which in this case was not so bad, and it has been unanimously agreed that the new skirt is better than the original - phew!

So, what did I do to mend this tremendous error? Well, I made a whole new skirt out of some navy drill I had hanging around.

There wasn't enough of the freakishly complimentary fabric to make another skirt, so it had to be happy as a little feature strip on the side of the front panel.

The bird, we decided, would do well as a little applique, so I ironed it onto some vliesofix (seriously, your best friend when doing anything related to applique) and then stitched it very carefully and very thoroughly onto the front of the skirt.

And then it was done, and I was happy, and Louisa was happy, and I think if the bird wasn't just an illustration of a bird cut out from a teatowel, it would have been happy too.

If you love something, give it away

You know those people who only have beautiful things? Like, everything in their house is gorgeous and admirable and stylishly arranged and not dusty? Well, I am not one of those people, but my friends, Lizzie and Ness most definitely are. Like, crazy stylish. All their clothes and their stuff and their house and their new bathroom and their hair... all of it. Gorgeous. It's actually kind of nauseating. Especially when they ask me to make clothes for them. The standards!!!! So, what to do when such stylish people ask for some bespokie-dokie? You use the best fabric you can find and you sew very very carefully.

First up, a plaid skirt for Nessie. This is some spunky plaid wool that Jay gave me about a year ago, which I had been planning on using to make myself a skirt for this winter but never got around to it. Anyway, I thought it was perfect for Nessie, and was inspired by the immortal words of Conor Oberst - if you love something, give it away. I admit, I do have a tendency to take music lyrics very seriously, but this one's good! A good one to live by!

So anyway, the fabric's so great that I left the skirt kinda plain - a couple of little pleats and some vintage red buttons and she's done.

Next up, lyrebirds for Lizzie.

Again, Jay is the source of this tea-towel and yes, it's spectacular. Look closely, and you will see fungus sprouting from the tree behind the lyrebird's head. That's the kinda detail money just can't buy. Well, obviously money can buy it, but it's a heck of a lot cooler than money... hopefully you get my drift. I was particularly proud of the detailing on the pocket, lined with a little offcut of lyrebird tail.

Both ladies requested boleros so, again, favourite fabrics were dug out.

The birds... holy crapola, right? They have banners with their names on them!!

And the yellow-breasted sunbird is on the breast! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Geddit? Yes... I really am that immature. Remember the map of Tassie? But seriously, if anyone has any ideas as to why the 'b' in 'breasted' is lower case, give me a hoy. I'm bothered by such irregularities.

Such birds could only be bound by 'fancy' binding, from back in the day when things were actually made in Australia. Crazy shit.

The pink floral tablecloth was a very new arrival, sent by my incredibly thoughtful and diligent linen scout, Claire. What a boon! I was slightly nervous to use it, since Lizzie had specified that "floral does not make her happy" but seriously, it's gorgeous, so I sent her an email to check. Of course, it was OK. She is uber stylish, after all. Come to think of it, there was a lot of calling and texting and emailing going on during the construction of these items. That's how stressed I was. Coz, apart from being crazy gorgeous, these people are my beloved friends, and I want to make them happy!

Brightness is a possibility

Recently, I got a skirt order from Bec (of Georgie Love fame) requesting that her skirt be "as bright as possible", with a "large overlap so the wind doesn't blow the skirt open to expose her unmentionables". I was excited. Brightness, you see, is one of the reasons I started sewing. At a very young age, I was disappointed not to be able to find Cyndi-Lauper-esque clothes in shops, so my ma and I embarked upon a years-long, ongoing project to create clothing that was "as bright as possible". Yep, I was one of those girls with flouro pink and/or red hair, wearing lots of sequins, faux fur and clothes made out of kids' sheets. Yay! And while I'm not so much into the kids' sheets and sequins any more, I still love a brightly coloured tablecloth or 7, and a multitude of coloured tights, red shoes, electric blue mascara etc etc.

Sooooo... apart from Bec being one of the funnest people to sew for (see this blog post about her top) she's also a woman after my own heart when it comes to brightness.

The fabric I chose for her brighter-than-bright wrap skirt is a totally wowsers floral number that I picked up from Pearl's slightly eccentric Aunty Margot. Now, a great deal of my fabric could be categorised as "not for everyone". This piece though, kind of takes that category to a new level. But I knew it was right for Bec. So, Bec, here's letting you know that brightness is indeed possible. I hope you dig it. Oh, and the overlap flap is made of yellow seersucker. Here's to modesty.

In other brightness news, I had another request from another Georgie Love lady, Sal, to make a skirt for her BFF who is, apparently "sunny" and also into bright. Now, can I just say here that Sal and I have only met in person ONE TIME. At this meeting she, with a little help from DH Lawrence, talked me into buying a very very flash pair of red linen sailor pants made by High Tea With Mrs Woo. The most expensive item of clothing I own. By far. But they look like this, and I love them, so it doesn't matter.

Though I have to say I NEVER wear mine rolled up, but whatever... horses for courses...

Anyway, Sal is tops. She has been super-encouraging and supportive of my little sewing venture and probably, if it weren't for Sal and Georgie Love, P&E would be... well, I'm not sure exactly what, but definitely not as productive, that's for sure. AND she's gorgeous. And funny. And, somewhat unsurprisingly, has a BFF who's sunny and into vintage, colourful, pink, yellow, animals etc.

So the skirt, then, was kind of easy. I picked out my favourite fabric in my collection which, I think, almost fits into the "not for everybody" category, being as it is quite pink and green and red and yellow. To add the animal and vintage element, I used an ex-kids' curtain from the 60s. I know it's from the 60s coz it came out of the bedroom of my friend Jan, who's 53. Her parents hung it when she was a baby. Voila: sunny, colourful, vintage animals. And toys. Fun times, no?

In fact, this skirt is so fun that it actually falls into the category of "wish I made it for myself". Oh and then, after I took the photos of the skirt, I walked inside and saw this flower arrangement that Pearl had made for her birthday

and I thought "crikeys, I wish that was a repeat pattern on some fabric". But it's not, but that's OK because it's in my dining room, right next to my sewing machine so I get to look at it. It reminds me that brightness is not only possible, but also loverly.

Next stop, Bega!

My beautiful mumma came to visit on monday. She's the one who taught me to sew, so if you're happy with your P&E and you know it, clap your hands for my mumma!

It's a bit of a regular thing we have going on, where she comes and hangs out with the kids while I sew/tidy the house/hang out and, now, pack up our belongings.

She usually brings me some little treat such a chocolate bikkies, some tea-towels or other delightful linen, but this visit brought a very beautiful and special leaving gift, which was made by mum's next-door neighbour, Cindi, who has just started up her own design company called ladmore designs. In what can only be described as crikeys-what-a-small-world quirk, turns out that Cindi also did the logo for my friends Ally and Richard's website, Happy Earth (remember the wren wedding dress?).

But anyway... the gift! How lovely! And so special because it's modeled on something that I think is quite beautiful, in that amazing, utilitarian way - a list of tram/train stops - and personalised to reflect my own journey. Ahhhh. Thanks mumma.

Blue and green should absolutely, definitely be seen

Whoever came up with the ridiculous adage "blue and green should never be seen" was obviously a moron who had never witnessed the following things: the contrast of May-blue sky sitting right on top of trees and/or grass, a flowering borage, or this lot of P&E skirts I just whipped up. I've been impressed by the number of people requesting blue and green in their skirts, because I totally dig this colour combo, and think that, like pink and red, it's way underrated.

This little baby is a wrap skirt, made from an awesomely gorgeous sheet. Check out the little bluebells!

I thought it fitted the request for "blue, green floral" most perfectly. I used a contrasting sheet for the waist band, just to mix it up a little bit (it's floral with polka-dots. Coolio).

Next blue-and-greenie features a linen kingfisher pocket. If the lady this skirt belongs to loves kingfishers half as much as I do, she'll be stoked, coz he's a cutie.

The pocket on the wrap skirt can present an interesting dilemma. This is why the wrap 'n' go can be awesome as the pockets form part of the design and function (they hold up the waist-tie/belt thing). Awesome. But this little kingfisher detail is a bit of an experiment for me, having never done anything just like it before. I am a fan of the hemline pocket - a bit sneaky, cute and different - and had been thinking that it might be sweet to put one in the curve on the front of a wrap skirt. The lady I made this skirt for requested a bird, so I thought I could add in the kingfisher in the form of a pocket, but didn't want to detract from the pattern on the tablecloth too much. Perfect opportunity for the sneaky-hem-pocket!

This next one was made for my mate Kylie (we did our PhDs together, and I've made her a few clothes over the years). The fabric is, I reckon, pretty spesh, and I've been saving it up for a very special occasion. Like, my own special occasion. But I also thought it would be pretty great for Kylie and now that I've made it into a skirt for her, I'm glad. I think this print is AMAZING. And also glorious. I reckon if you're wearing this skirt, you should feel pretty happy. Not to talk it up too much... But seriously! Those flowers! I love a big print, especially when it involves blue and green... and HOT PINK!

Last, but certainly not least (Pearl reckons it's her favourite of the most recent lot) is a native-bird themed one for a lady who has ordered 2 skirts and 2 boleros! What a champ! I LOVE this print (Pelican! Black swan! Eagle thing! Kingfisher!), and I love that it's on a really chunky, almost raw linen. I'm pretty excited about the other stuff I'm making for her too, so stay tuned.

And can I just say a special thanks to Olive's cubby house bunting for acting as the clothesline for this photo shoot. I daresay there will be a repeat performance as I am generally an astoundingly average photographer and these ones actually look alright.

Not exactly a pet-free household

Those of you who are cat people will know that cats, for some reason, have an inbuilt radar that can detect non-cat-lovers. When said radar goes off, the cat invariably climbs on/smooches/rubs their face all over the detected non-cat-lover. I find this kind of funny. My cat Bunn, for example is a notoriously un-smoochy cat. That is, of course, unless you are decidedly ambivalent towards cats. Then she turns on the charm.

For this reason, I'm assuming that the skirt she paraded all over this afternoon while I was trying to photograph it, has been made for a non-cat-lover.

The skirt in question was first cab off the rank in the extraordinary avalanche of custom skirt orders that has been steadily heading my way since I announced the grand P&E moving to the country sale. Phew! Who woulda thought? Well, apparently Pearl thought ("yeah, I kinda wondered what you were doing...") but didn't say anything. So now I'm in the thick of it, though achieving my objectives of a: raising a slush fund for the move and b: getting rid of some of my fabric stash so there's less to move. So all's good, really.

And what's more, I'm getting to sew some really fun skirts!

This one, sewn for the lady who may-or-may-not be a cat lover, is a beautiful soft mustardy summer cotton, with a pocket and waistband detail in a sweet little vintage floral print in browns and reds. This fabric has been hanging around FOR AGES. I totally love it, though it was a bit of an annoying size. But perfect for a waistband and pocket. So when my lady said she loved mustards, reds browns and pockets, I knew just what I had to do. I hope she's happy, and not disgusted by the fact that a cat paraded on it.